News

Penn Lost

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Mar 15th, 2018 · 4:15 PM EDT

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It was fun while it lasted.

And it was close, too, a lot closer than the 76 to 60 scoreline indicates.

Penn came out flying in Wichita, building a 10-point lead against a sleepy Kansas. The Jayhawks eventually woke up and used a 22 to 5 run and a bullshit foul call to take a 33-26 halftime lead. Big 12 player of the year Devonte’ Graham poured in 19 in the first and finished with 29 points to lead all scorers.

Steve Donahue’s team cut the lead to four in the second and really didn’t play a bad game, but they disappointed with some self-inflicted wounds. The Quakers turned it over 11 times and finished 5-14 from the free-throw line, a miserable 35.7% from the charity stripe.

They shot 40% from the field and 39.3% from the three-point arc, hitting 11 of 29 from deep. Caleb Wood, a 38% three-point shooter, finished 4-12 from beyond as Penn went well-below their season averages against a bona-fide power conference champion. I still think they were under-seeded, but it doesn’t matter now.

This was a home game for Kansas, a first-round game in their home state. They had to travel ALL THE WAY to Kansas City (45 minutes) for the Big 12 tournament and ALL THE WAY to Wichita (2.5 hours) for this game.

They will, no doubt, find a way to underachieve and exit the tournament in disappointing fashion.

And then we will all laugh at them.

They will get their comeuppance.

Nothing Easy In March!

1 seed Kansas gets a hard fought win over 16 seed Penn 76-60. 1 seeds improve to 133-0 all-time vs 16 seeds.

Devonte' Graham: 29 PTS, 6 REB, 6 ASTpic.twitter.com/KXWxl1ZxAN

— CollegeBB News (@CollegeBBNCAA) March 15, 2018